Beyond Meat is struggling, and the plant-based meat industry worries
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Re: Beyond Meat is struggling, and the plant-based meat industry worries
#2Re: Beyond Meat is struggling, and the plant-based meat industry worries
#3Paywall so I can only speculate. I have thought about if the idea of wanting to eat meat-like food is a construct created by meat eaters speculating about what vegetarians want.
But in reality I think that there is a large portion of vegetarians that view the texture of meat as "gross" and so realistic meat substitutes have no appeal to them.
I don't know if this is true or not, and I have no way of proving this other than the times that I've offered beyond meat at a party but not gotten any takers. It's just an idea that perhaps meat eaters are pushing a narrative at a demographic that doesn't have a desire for it!
Re: Beyond Meat is struggling, and the plant-based meat industry worries
#4I think this shows us that "technological innovation" solutions are not always the right answer to our problems.
I've had these fake-patties and they're good, I've gone to burger king and it's more than good enough. But then again, when I go to the supermarket these are still too expensive compared to regular meat and the flavor profile is not as good. So I they would have to come up with a really killer product, but how can that happen when adoption is so slow? They are not going to get money to really improve things to the required level to dominate the market.
In this regard, I think anyone who was hoping for plant-based meat to replace meat was being a little naïve. Imo, the solution to phasing out meats should come more in incentivising proper vegetarian/vegan meal plans, restaurants, etc. Probably through education plans on the benefits and the right ways to approach plant-heavy diets as well as tax incentives and so on.
But... do we even want to phase out meat? I think for a large majority of people the answer is no and so we end up with products like "beyond meat". I think vegans are right, ethically and politically but in many cases it is very difficult for us to admit how wrong we are and it really doesn't help when the counterpart comes off as morally superior. There needs to be humility but at the same time, this is not a problem we can really ignore.
I think our societies are addicted to meat and so the solution to our meat problem should be the same kind of solutions we apply when we have systemic addiction problems. Education, rehabilitation, support. It's difficult for us to admit that we do have a problem, and being such a systemic world-wide scale problem... well, yeah, it's almost impossible.
Re: Beyond Meat is struggling, and the plant-based meat industry worries
#5We actually prefer the Beyond Meat patty to a real beef one about 3/4 times in my house. We also prefer their Italian sausage for several recipes.
They aren’t the same by any means; we just happen to like the Beyond Meat alternative for those dishes. I really hope they stick around.
Re: Beyond Meat is struggling, and the plant-based meat industry worries
#6Paywall so I can only speculate. I have thought about if the idea of wanting to eat meat-like food is a construct created by meat eaters speculating about what vegetarians want. But in reality I think that there is a large portion of vegetarians that view the texture of meat as "gross" and so realistic meat substitutes have no appeal to them. I don't know if this is true or not, and I have no way of proving this othe…
Paywall so I can only speculate.
Not commenting on an article you didn’t read is always an option.
Re: Beyond Meat is struggling, and the plant-based meat industry worries
#7It really is not that complex to understand:
You either love meat and won't touch these things with a 10 feet pole or you are vegetarian/vegan and usually take care of what you put in your body, meaning probably a limited amount of junk/processed food, meaning no fake meat substitutes.
The market really isn't that big imho, there are already plenty of alternative to meat for most applications, which are cheaper, less processed and taste as good or better
My gf is vegan, she makes home made black beans patties, cauliflower patties, spinach patties, &c. they're all excellent, it's more of a question of habit than taste in my opinion
Re: Beyond Meat is struggling, and the plant-based meat industry worries
#8Re: Beyond Meat is struggling, and the plant-based meat industry worries
#9I think this shows us that "technological innovation" solutions are not always the right answer to our problems. I've had these fake-patties and they're good, I've gone to burger king and it's more than good enough. But then again, when I go to the supermarket these are still too expensive compared to regular meat and the flavor profile is not as good. So I they would have to come up with a really killer product, but…
What about a price to CO2 (with equivalence calculation) emission? This would automatically make the (beef) meat significantly more expensive. And it would essentially just put a price on something which costs a price later anyway.
Re: Beyond Meat is struggling, and the plant-based meat industry worries
#10It really is not that complex to understand: You either love meat and won't touch these things with a 10 feet pole or you are vegetarian/vegan and usually take care of what you put in your body, meaning probably a limited amount of junk/processed food, meaning no fake meat substitutes. The market really isn't that big imho, there are already plenty of alternative to meat for most applications, which are cheaper, less…
> You either love meat and won't touch these things with a 10 feet pole
I think this is wrong, and you're missing where the market is.
From what I've read, the meat alternatives actually sell primarily to meat eaters who feel like they should occasionally substitute meat for health reasons or variety.
Non-meat-eaters have already weaned themselves off meat taste-wise and are not-so-interested.